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Sophie Devereaux
Sophie Devereaux is the Leverage team's grifter and also second-in-command whenever the team leader, Nathan Ford is busy or in jail. An aspiring actress, capable of convincingly playing any character or nationality... as long as it's not on an actual theatrical stage. Sophie plays a variety of characters while on a job, and is as adept with aristocracy as she is with working class characters. She has many other identities from the days before she joined the team, and her real name is still a mystery. She has run the long con in the past, and we know of at least one long-con identity, a British duchess. Aside from that, her background is largely unknown except for the fact that she has a lot of hidden secrets in London, where she also appearantly started stealing and grifting. In The King George Job, she also gives up some of the goods that she stole either when or shortly after she started getting criminal for the good of the con as well as for her own good, more precisely the security of not getting caught for her early mistakes. Sophie's role within the team are just as varied. She is the sympathetic figure, humane to Nate's practical, pragmatic one when dealing with clients. Sophie and Nate seem to have a complicated history dating back to when Nate was an insurance investigator pursuing Sophie for art theft. Even then, they had an attraction, but didn't act on it, and their relationship remains a complex one although they are now occasional lovers. Sophie takes on a maternal role at times, advising Parker and Alec Hardison on their budding relationship. With Eliot Spencer she is more a peer. Sophie has a wide network of friends and colleagues, allowing her to bring fellow grifter Tara Cole onto the team when she needed a break. Relationships with Other Characters Sophie often operates as a maternal figure the crew, being both nurturing and encouraging. Nathan Ford Often the two of them disagree, but usually because of the personal issues between them. Sophie often puts certain expectations on Nate that he seems unable to fulfill. The two of them had a somewhat romantic--although strictly non-sexual-- relationship predating the series when Nate chased her as an Insurance Claims Investigator. Throughout Season 1, they occasionally entertained the notion of being more than friends, though neither appeared ready. In The Miracle Job, Sophie seems to indicate that she is waiting on him to make a decision about his feelings. In The Wedding Job, Nate implies that he is not ready to start dating and makes an allusion to their past, stating love is not "running across rooftops in Paris", but rather it is "pushing a cart around Home Depot". This seems to suggest Nate believes Sophie may be equally unprepared to undertake any kind of romantic involvement with him. Nate's alcoholism also proves to be a constant strain on their relationship in Season 1. After Sophie betrays the team in The First David Job, any romantic feelings between the two of them seemed to be put on hold. In the beginning of Season 2, Nate asks Sophie out to dinner but she has already begun dating someone else. Even after Sophie's boyfriend breaks up with her in The Fairy Godparents Job, neither she nor Nate make a move. Throughout most Season 2, their relationship is largely platonic, though their friendship is strengthened as Nate attempts to be there for her during her internal struggle with her identity. When Sophie leaves the team for the second half of Season 2, her relationship with Nate becomes strained in her absence, and Nate slowly loses control of his alcoholism. Sophie returns at the end of Season 2 just in time to save the team from an out-of-control con and she and Nate share what was likely their first kiss. Season 3 places the two of them on more of an even keel. After Nate is released from jail following the Season 2 finale, Sophie and Nate resume their relationship as it was for the first part of Season 2. They seem to be, for the first time, on the same page about their friendship, and seem very much sympatico in terms of their working relationship (planning the cons, etc). In the end of Season 3, just as they seem to hit their stride in their friendship, however, the two of them share a drunken one night stand, throwing a wrench into things. The two of them agree, in the Season 4 premiere, to act as if it never happened but it does not last. As of Season 4, Nate and Sophie have a no-strings-attached relationship. It is implied that their relationship deepens over the course of the season, though neither outwardly acknowledges it. As of Season 5, the two are in a relationship then in the series finale the couple became permanent when Nate asked her to marry him and she agreed. It is implied during the Season 3 episode The Ho Ho Ho Job that Nate had earned Sophie's true name, still unknown to the audience, and then it is confirmed that he does indeed know her name after the San Lorenzo Job. Her true name is never revealed to the audience even during the series finale. Parker Sophie has a special relationship with Parker, as they are the only two women on the team. Sophie mentors Parker in both the art of the grift and in her relationship with Hardison, as Parker has anxieties when it comes to connecting with others. Parker relies on Sophie for advice and respects her immensely. Sophie is protective of Parker and the two of them behave as an older and younger sister respectively. Alec Hardison Sophie and Hardison have a mutual respect for one another, as with the other members of the team. She is one of the people to appreciate him the most although she still considers him a geek. Eliot Spencer As with the rest of the team, Sophie trusts Eliot with her life and Eliot is fiercely protective of her. Their relationship hit a bit of a road bump at the end of Season 1 when Sophie betrayed the team in The First David Job. Eliot took her betrayal more personally than the rest of the crew. Perhaps because, while he is very close with Hardison and Parker, he is often having to be a big brother to them due to their various forms of immaturity, whereas with Sophie, he was able to relate more as an equal. This subsided quickly, however, and they went back to having the familial relationship they once had. Family * Sophie has an Aunt Emily, whose house she visited at Christmas. * Sophie had a boyfriend we know only as "William". We know very little about him except That he was of British Nobility and his death hit Sophie very hard. * William's Aunt, the Countess of Kensington, lives in London. Sophie's real name One of the biggest secrets in the series is Sophie's real name. In The Girls' Night Out Job, she and Tara lament that they have so many identities no one knows who they really are. By this time, Sophie has at least come to terms with this fact of her life, having taken her personal voyage of discovery. But the viewers have yet to learn her real name, and according to show creator John Rogers, may never learn it. John Rogers has since said that it would be revealed (see below). Sophie has a long history of using assumed identities, and routinely uses them during cons with the team. In The First David Job, James Sterling refers to Sophie as "Jenny", the first indication that Sophie is not her real name. She is comfortable with many of the identities she uses in the short term, but seems less so with some she has built long-term and used in relationships. Sophie reflects on not using her real name with her then-boyfriend, Jake, and questions her own honesty with her friends when Jack refers to her as Katherine Clive in The Fairy Godparents Job. In The Two Live Crew Job, Sophie realizes that Nate is her closest friend, yet she had never heard him say her real name. Before leaving the team in order to embark on a voyage of self-discovery, she tells Nate that she will tell him her real name when she "buries" Sophie Devereaux. As of The Jailhouse Job, Sophie tells Parker, Hardison and Eliot her real name, while Nate is in jail, but refuses to tell Nate when he is released. Rather, Sophie uses her name to tease Nate until he "earns" the right to know it; he, in turn, claims he will discover her real name in time. In The Inside Job, Sophie correctly guesses that the password to Parker's warehouse is Sophie's real name. She enters this into a numerical keypad similar to a phone. The audience can hear seven beeps and can see the last three buttons pushed: 7, then 2, then #. Since # signals a passcode entry, Sophie's real name must be a six-letter name in which the penultimate letter is P, Q, R or S and the last letter is A, B or C. However, showrunner John Rogers indicated in his blog that this was a tease for Nate onscreen, and the viewers off screen, and the numbers do not indicate Sophie's real name. For a time, they joke about her name, until The Ho Ho Ho Job, when Sophie and Nate window shop and spot an ID bracelet. Nate says if she wants it inscribed she'd have to tell him her name. Later after the con is over during the gift exchange she writes a hint as to her name on a napkin. Sophie eventually does tell Nate her name, in the throes of drunken passion after The San Lorenzo Job, but Nate does not remember it, and suggests he continue to call her Sophie to keep their liaison a secret (as well as to hide the fact he can't remember it). In the series finale, The Long Goodbye Job Nate calls Sophie "Lara", suggesting this was her real name. However when the two walk out she chides him that Lara is not her real name, which Nate acknowledges. Accomplishments * Successfully stole The Second David from the Vatican, which was later retrieved by James Sterling. * Considered by Marcus Starke and Colin "Chaos" Mason to be one of the best grifters in the world. * Successfully stole the Stanley Cup, replacing it with a fake (though not a very good one). She does not remember where the real one is currently located. Skills * Grifting * Pickpocket * Counterfeiting * Inside Man, often posing as inside roles in various long cons. * Neuro-linguistic Programming * She can hold her own in fights, and overcame assassin Miranda Miles in a cat fight. * High knowledge of history, culture and art objects. * High Speed Driving, which she learned from a taxi driver in Istanbul. * In The Long Good-Bye Job shown that she can play well not only in cons. Languages * Multiple Languages ** Spanish ** Chinese ** French ** German ** Japanese ** Russian ** Hebrew ** Italian * Multiple Dialects *English Weaknesses *Of the Leverage team, the least is known about her, since she can change identities so easily. This has caused some friction and distrust. *Blind confidence in her on-stage acting skills (which Alec Hardison has called "Very Awful", and "the mountain of suck") **In "The Fairy Godparents Job", Sophie admits to being a poor actress. She reveals that acting requires telling the truth, and sharing a part of yourself inside of the role. Sophie then admits that she has been lying about herself for so long she does not have any truth to her stage roles. Notes * Gina Bellman, who plays Sophie, was pregnant during the filming of the second season, and had to be written out mid-season for maternity leave. The writers ended the storyline involving her new boyfriend, and sent Sophie traveling the world on a voyage of self-discovery. While she was gone, the character Tara Cole, also a grifter, was introduced as her temporary replacement. * During season three, Gina Bellman began wearing a gold dog tag necklace made by Portland designers. The dog tag was blank. During her appearance at Con-Con 2010, she said that she hoped there would be a name on the dog tag by the end of the season. However, John Rogers has been quoted as saying he doesn't necessarily plan for the audience to ever to learn Sophie's real name. Trivia * Sophie first met Nate ten years before the events of season one, when she was stealing art in Prague. Two years later he caught her in Damascus. * She and Nate also had encounters in Paris and Tuscany. In Paris, she and Nate exchanged gunshots with the two gunshots injuring each other. * According to Jim Sterling's people, Sophie is wanted in England, France, Spain, Luxembourg and much of the rest of Europe. * After The Nigerian Job it is rumored that Sophie has property in Ireland, Dubai and Tokyo. * Sophie has a safe-house, and at least one storage facility, in London, England. * In The Lost Heir Job, Sophie mentions that she had taken viola lessons as a child but that she was "absolute rubbish" and couldn't play a note. Links * http://www.tnt.tv/series/leverage/characters/?contentId=41359 References Category:Characters Category:Grifters